Our Meals & Nutrition
Our nursery snack and cooked lunch menu is accredited by expert early years nutritionist, Catherine Lippe, (RNutr) for going above an beyond national recommended nutrition guidelines for early years settings.
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We understand that the food children consume in their early years can impact how they grow, learn and develop, and their health in later life. That's why we're committed to providing outstanding nutrition to help give children the very best start and a healthy, happy future.
Our partner Nursery Kitchen prepare meals just like you do at home, only with tonnes of food safety procedures in place. Their freshly prepared meals are then delivered to us chilled, ready to be cooked in the oven for children to enjoy.
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They only use the best and freshest ingredients in their meals, from high-welfare meat to MSC Certified fish. In fact, Their ingredients are much fresher than you would find in a supermarket because they buy directly from farms, fields, and other high-quality food sources.
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Nursery Kitchen's meals are created by specialist chefs and approved by expert nutritionists to ensure that our meals are varied, packed with flavour, and nutritionally balanced, while catering to different dietary requirements.
Allergies & Dietary Preferences
​From the moment a child joins our nursery, we work closely with families to record their dietary needs and preferences, ensuring all meals are carefully planned and safe. If your child has any food intolerances, allergies, or any other special dietary needs, please complete the relevant section on their registration form. It may be necessary to seek medical advice from your child’s GP to provide a treatment plan for the nursery to follow in the event of an emergency. Before your child starts at nursery, we will complete a detailed medical form and care plan with you.
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We require all team members to complete their Level 2 Food Hygiene and Allergy Awareness Training, which is refreshed regularly. This ensures that every staff member is fully equipped to manage the safe preparation, handling, and serving of food, minimising risk at every step.
Snack time
We provide a variety of healthy, nutritious foods at snack time, as well as a choice of water, milk, or a dairy alternative to drink. Healthy snacks and drinks are provided mid-morning and afternoon. We encourage children to drink throughout the day, and water is always freely available. We have cups in all the rooms (with munchkin cups for our little Ducklings) but you may also like to provide your child with their own drinking bottle.
Lunch time
If your child attends a morning session or full day, they may either bring in a packed lunch, in a clearly named lunch box, or for children over 1 year old, we offer the option of a two-course cooked meal. Our cooked lunches are charged in addition to our fees.
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Packed lunches
We hope to positively promote the health and wellbeing of every child. We aim to support your child to foster a healthy attitude to food and work with you to ensure your child benefits from a balanced diet. Your child requires a balanced diet that includes daily intake of food groups; carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, protein, dairy, and good fats that is low in sugar, salt, and excess fat.
Our aim is to share information with parents around the content of a healthy packed lunch and the balance of food groups that should be provided in a packed lunch. A child’s packed lunch should meet the Government’s food and nutrition standards for the Early Years as detailed in the EYFS Nutrition Guide (effective September 2025). To comply with the Government’s nutrition standards and our Nursery Kitchen nutrition accreditation, and to protect children attending the nursery with life threatening allergies, certain foods are restricted or not permitted as part of a packed lunch. Further details can be found in our Healthy and Safer Eating policy which is shared with parents before starting nursery.
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we can accept sealed baby food jars or ready meals as part of their packed lunch. Unfortunately, we cannot heat up homemade food for children for health and safety reasons. Please supply enough formula milk powder (pre-measured in separate containers) and clean, sterilised bottles for your baby’s session. The formula milk will be freshly made up when your baby needs it. Breast milk will be stored in our refrigerator and warmed following guidelines from National Health.
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Tea-time
We provide a light tea which is served at 5.00pm for all children who stay until 5.30pm. The cost of a light tea is included in our session fee.
Early Years Oral Health Programme
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Bouncing Beans is a Healthy Smiles accredited setting
The Healthy Smiles award programme supports services working with young and primary school children to adopt tooth-friendly practices. By implementing the five Healthy Smiles standards, each participating setting helps to:
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increase the dentist attendance of children in their care.
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promote positive oral health messages to the children, staff, and parents.
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reduce the frequency of sugary food and drinks given to the children.
Oral health is now included in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (EYFS) and is linked to the things we already promote in the nursery, such as self-care, healthy eating, and physical development. Tooth decay is largely preventable, but it is still a serious problem among young children.
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It is a shocking and incredibly sad thought, but nearly a quarter of 5-year-olds in England have tooth decay, with 3 or 4 teeth affected on average. Tooth extraction is one of the most common procedures for children under 6 in hospital. Extraction is also the most common reason for hospital admission for children aged 6 to 10. Children from more deprived backgrounds are more likely to have tooth decay.
Children who have toothache, or need treatment, may have pain or infections. This can have a wider effect and lead to problems eating, sleeping, socialising, and learning.
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How can I prevent tooth decay in my child?
The main cause of tooth decay is not the amount of sugar or acid in the diet, but how often it is eaten or drunk. The more often your child has sugary or acidic foods or drinks, the more likely they are to have decay. So, it is important to have sugary and acidic foods just at mealtimes. If you want to give your child a snack, try to stick to cheese, vegetables and fruit. Try to limit how much dried fruit you give as it is high in sugar and is bad for their teeth.
How Sugar-Free Drinks Can Damage Your Teeth
Many people think that switching from regular to diet or no-added sugar drinks will keep their teeth healthy. Unfortunately, although they often contain no sugar, diet drinks can still cause similar amounts of dental erosion as regular ones.
Diet or sugar-free fizzy drinks contain phosphoric acid, the same found in regular, sugary fizzy drinks, and Citric acid and tartaric acid are just some of the additional ingredients in diet, sugar free drinks, and fruit juices that can damage teeth. As a young child’s teeth are softer and have thinner enamel, they are more susceptible to breakdown from contact with acids and bacteria.
To achieve the Healthy Smiles accreditation, we implemented some changes, and we hope that you will support us in our aim to improve oral health and promote overall good health for every child. To achieve the standards, we:
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Introduced a nursery tooth brushing programme during the summer term (April to September) for the children in Cygnets room.
All parents of children in Cygnets room will receive a letter with further details and consent form in March.
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Educate the children in Goslings room and Cygnets room about the importance of looking after their teeth using books about teeth and the dentist, resources, and fun activities.
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Provide advice and guidance to parents on all aspects of oral health including the use of dummies and bottles.
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It is advised that children have only plain water or milk to drink in between meals. We only provide milk or plain water with your child’s snack.
We therefore ask that your child has only plain water in their drinks bottle. You may provide a fruit juice or squash separately to be consumed with their lunch.